Jeri Smith-Ready

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

According to this Associated Press article, federal judge Stephen Crocker turned down a request by federal prosecutors to subpoena specific identifying information about Amazon.com customers.

In their attempt to prosecute a used book seller for tax evasion, the feds tried to get a hold of Amazon.com sales records, including identifying information for 24,000 customers. Later they scaled back their request, asking to violate the privacy of only 120 individuals (oh, that's better).

As Crocker stated,

It is an unsettling and un-American scenario to envision federal agents nosing through the reading lists of law-abiding citizens while hunting for evidence against somebody else.